1/31/17

Today, room M102 did some writing about the importance of preserving sources of clean water. The students wrote mock letters to the editor, in which they tried to convince their audience that cleaning and protecting rivers, such as the one in A River Ran Wild, is a worthwhile endeavor. This lesson will lead us into the second anchor book in the clean water unit.

Today, a new batch of permission slips were sent home with the students. Because it is the mid point of the year, we are looking to switch both A.M. and P.M. patrols. If students are interested in filling one of these positions, they need to have an adult at home sign the paperwork and have it be returned to school next week. Students who filled a patrol spot in the first half of the year, may also fill a spot in the second half of the year. Please let me know if there are any questions pertaining to patrols. Students should try to return these forms to school as soon as possible. 

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading, fill out reader's log on a nightly basis.

Math - worksheet due Friday 2/3

1/30/17

The fifth graders put the finishing touches on their Columbus Day slide presentations. Over the last few social studies lessons, the fifth graders have looked to craft a position statement on wether or not Columbus Day should be a recognized holiday. The students then created a slide presentation on their iPads in which they elaborated on the topic. The members of M102 created thoughtful responses to this question.

Earlier in the day, the fifth graders continued their work on multiplying of fractions. The students were presented with a number of problems that had to deal with solving word problems and showing clear strategies for how to solve each problem.

Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading, fill out reader's log on a nightly basis.

Math - worksheet due Friday 2/3

1/27/17

The fifth graders deserve a relaxing weekend. They worked hard throughout the course of today. During social studies, the students put the finishing touches on a writing piece in which they give their opinion as to whether or not Columbus Day should be celebrated as a national holiday. The students did a great job of using the evidence at their disposal.

Later in the school day, the fifth graders reviewed their material concerning the atmosphere of the earth. The students worked in partners to create posters in which they labeled the various layers and gave some information about each.

Today, a new batch of permission slips were sent home with the students. Because it is the mid point of the year, we are looking to switch both A.M. and P.M. patrols. If students are interested in filling one of these positions, they need to have an adult at home sign the paperwork and have it be returned to school next week. Students who filled a patrol spot in the first half of the year, may also fill a spot in the second half of the year. Please let me know if there are any questions pertaining to patrols. Students should try to return these forms to school as soon as possible. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

1/26/17

Today was a very productive day in M102. The fifth graders were active leaners and participants in all of their subjects. I was thrilled to see students working with their groups to finish their timelines concerning the Nashua River. These posters turned out well. The fifth graders also were able to begin the first draft of their literary essays. This work will continue into next week.

During our math time, students continued to work multiplying fractions. Students have been using visual representations to show their work and have been creating both multiplication and division problems to better understand the connection between the two operations.


Homework

Blog Topic: The fifth grade has recently finished reading Auggie & Me after earlier reading Wonder. Students this week should write about their favorite character from either of the books. This post should be at least 5 paragraphs in length. Students should use detailed evidence from the text to explain why the character in question is their favorite. This is due Friday January 27th.

Math - worksheet due Friday January 27th

1/25/17

Time was spent today continuing our literary essay writing. The fifth graders are going to spend some time writing about the short story, Spaghetti. This story was written by Cynthia Rylant. The student seemed to enjoy this selection and I am looking forward to working with the students during this writing process.


Homework

Blog Topic: The fifth grade has recently finished reading Auggie & Me after earlier reading Wonder. Students this week should write about their favorite character from either of the books. This post should be at least 5 paragraphs in length. Students should use detailed evidence from the text to explain why the character in question is their favorite. This is due Friday January 27th.

Math - worksheet due Friday January 27th

1/23/17

Members of M102 had a productive writing sessions today. The students turned their attention to a short story titled Spaghetti. The fifth graders began by annotating this short piece of fiction while using our graphic organizer to look for themes or author's messages contained in the text. The students carried over the same process that was used last week. I was impressed with the effort shown during this time.

Earlier in the school day, the fifth graders began their first lesson concerning multiplying fractions. The fifth graders are going to take time this week to lay the foundation for future success in the next few weeks of lessons.



Homework

Blog Topic: The fifth grade has recently finished reading Auggie & Me after earlier reading Wonder. Students this week should write about their favorite character from either of the books. This post should be at least 5 paragraphs in length. Students should use detailed evidence from the text to explain why the character in question is their favorite. This is due Friday January 27th.

Math - worksheet due Friday January 27th

1/20/17

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I look forward to seeing students back at school on Monday.

1/19/17

The fifth graders, hosted some teachers from the Ottoson Middle School today. These teachers talked to the fifth graders about some of the language options that they could possibly select for next year. The students were great listeners and asked some important questions.

Later in the school day, the members of M102 spent some time investigating Christopher Columbus and his legacy. The students were presented with the traditional account of Columbus and also watched a short video. This contrasted with the book Encounters that we read together earlier this week. The students will be do a short writing piece on their feelings about the Columbus holiday over the next few days.

Tomorrow, the fifth graders will meet with our book buddies. We will work together on an activity geared around the book, Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 



Homework

Math - fraction pyramids worksheet

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading

1/18/17

The fifth graders returned to our literary writing unit today. The students spent time gathering ideas about a potential theme concerning the video that we watched together in class last week. The students used a thesis template to better organize their writing. They then looked to gather reasons, examples or particular scenes taken from the short video to form the structure of their paper. I was impressed with the level of discourse and energy that the students took to this material.

Earlier in the school day, the two fifth grade once again met in their groups to continue work on their fraction word problems. The students have been eager to work with Mrs. Leigh's students. The fifth graders worked well in their groups to deconstruct and solve this challenging word problem.

As a reminder, a group of language teachers from the middle school will be visiting us tomorrow.


Homework

Math - fraction pyramids worksheet

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading

1/17/17

The fifth graders completed a series of comprehension questions pertaining to A River Ran Wild during our ELA time. The students worked well together to craft meaningful responses to these questions. This transitioned into an activity in which the fifth graders will be responsible for creating a time line of events that we read about in the story. This work will continue later this week.

Earlier in the school day, the fifth graders began a multi-step word problems in small groups. The students will be responsible for formulating a complete answer for this problem and representing their thinking on a piece of poster paper. Today was a positive day in terms of laying the groundwork for future success. I look forward to see the groups return to this lesson during tomorrow's math time.

On Thursday, the fifth graders will host visiting teachers from the middle school. We are fortunate to have some of the world language instructors come into M102 to talk more about their subjects. Students will have an opportunity to hear more about the languages offered next year and will get to ask questions.

Homework

Math - fraction pyramids worksheet

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading

1/13/17

The students finished the week by beginning to learn about Christopher Columbus and his famous exploration. The fifth graders are being presented with the traditional account of this voyage and a fictionalized account from the perspective of one of the native peoples that Columbus encountered. The students were actively engaged in this material today. which was great to see.

Later in the day, the members of M102 returned to their study of the importance of clean water. Today's lesson focused on the creation of a working timeline to place events in their proper time frame.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Say a prayer for the Houston Texans, they'll need it.

1/12/17

Today, the fifth grade continued their work with literary essays. The students watched a short video concerning a soccer team that formed on a small island in Thailand. The students looked at the motivations and the feelings of the young boys and girls who formed this team. They then moved onto a group activity where they wrote down observations that they noticed. We are laying a solid foundation for the writing to come in this unit.

Earlier in the day, the students began to look at some strategies for multiplying fractions. I am looking forward to progressing deeper into this subject matter with the members of M102.




Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading, fill out reader's log on a nightly basis

1/11/17

The fifth graders spent some time looking at newspaper articles from October and November of 1938 during social studies. Students worked in groups to summarize the articles that described the panic and distress caused by the original War of the Worlds broadcast. This lesson will lead into a close examination of the first contact between Christopher Columbus and the native peoples.

The fifth graders also learned a new energizer activity during our morning meeting. This activity, called Silent Signs, saw the fifth graders using body movements to give one of their peers directions so that they could find a state or country on a map. This got the blood pumping and served as a nice movement activity to begin our day.


Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading, fill out reader's log on a nightly basis

1/10/17

The members of M102 spent time looking at the short story Eleven by Sandra Cisneros today. This lesson kicked off our work with literary essay writing. The students spent some time annotating this story while looking for author's purpose and intent. I thought that it was a nice kick off to a new unit of study.

Earlier in the day, the fifth graders spent time working with addition and subtraction of fractions. The students carried over the tremendous work they did on their recent fractional proportion lessons to this new subject matter.



Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading, fill out reader's log on a nightly basis

1/9/17

The fifth grade began to explore the theme of clean water during our ELA time. We began the unit by looking at the book A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry. This story focused on a river in New England that was badly damaged due to pollution. Over time, the river has recovered. This story served as a nice kick-off to the new reading unit.

Earlier in the day, the students returned to their work with the proportional fraction land problems with their small groups. The fifth graders wrapped up this two day lesson with very positive work. I was impressed with the ability of students to explain their thinking to one another. A very meaningful lesson.


Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading, fill out reader's log on a nightly basis

1/6/17

The fifth graders worked to complete their pieces about the role zoos play in the modern world. The students worked hard this week on different tasks leading up to our writing during today's lesson. I look forward to sitting with this essays over the weekend and I am sure that they will reflect the effort and dedication that the students put into their writing this week.

Later in the day, the members of M102 spent out social studies time looking at the original radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. This lesson serves as a kick off to our study of European exploration of the North American Continent. The fifth graders were engaged and worked well in small groups when it came time to investigate some newspaper articles from the time period of the original broadcast.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

1/5/17

The students continued to collect data concerning zoos today. Students spent one more day completing another task on the road to their mini-research paper. I continue to be impressed with the passion and intelligent discussion that I find emanating from all corners of the room during this ELA work. I look forward to working with the students tomorrow, as they begin their writing.

Earlier in the school day, the fifth graders began to work with a set of challenging land section fraction problems. This lesson will require the students to add and subtract fractions and to fall back on the knowledge that has been accumulated over the last few weeks. This work will continue into tomorrow.


Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading, fill out reading log on nightly basis. Due on Friday 1/6

Math - word problem, due on Friday January 6th

Writing Blog - (due Friday January 6th) Write about an enjoyable or interesting experience that you had over the just completed winter break. Go into great detail about the topic. Explain why this moment was important or exciting. This should be at least 3 paragraphs in length. 

1/4/17

The fifth graders continued their mini-research project during our ELA time today. The students were presented with a few articles that they had to gather details about the purpose of zoos in modern day. The fifth graders are heavily invested in this work and I look forward to continuing it over the next few days.

Earlier in the school day, the students began working with land plot problems. The fifth graders are going to be working with portions of land and looking to assign a fractional amount to the sections. This set of lessons are usually ones that force the students to undertake a process of trial and error and to use their growing knowledge of fractions to help them reason their way through.



Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading, fill out reading log on nightly basis

Math - word problem, due on Friday January 6th

Writing Blog - (due Friday January 6th) Write about an enjoyable or interesting experience that you had over the just completed winter break. Go into great detail about the topic. Explain why this moment was important or exciting. This should be at least 3 paragraphs in length. 

1/3/17

It was great to get back into the classroom to begin 2017 together. The students seemed to have had relaxing and entertaining vacations. We began our morning meeting by having students share with their peers some high points from the completed winter break. The students did a nice job of sharing their memories with each other.

Later in the day, the students turned their attention to a new piece of writing. This performance based assessment will see the students explore zoos during the course of the week. More specifically, whether or not zoos are a positive or a negative. During our work today, students were tasked with pulling supporting details from both a video and an article.


Homework

Reading - 30 minutes of quiet reading, fill out reading log on nightly basis

Math - word problem, due on Friday January 6th

Writing Blog - (due Friday January 6th) Write about an enjoyable or interesting experience that you had over the just completed winter break. Go into great detail about the topic. Explain why this moment was important or exciting. This should be at least 3 paragraphs in length.